Join us for a discussion on the role of the arts in uplifting communities affected by violence. This year’s co-recipient of the Martin H:son Holmdahl Award for the Promotion of Human Rights, Lindsey Doyle, will dialogue with Professor Peter Wallensteen, Chair of the Holmdahl Prize Committee, about her recent work in South Africa and her research on the topic.

The human rights discourse highlights the fundamental right to self-expression and the freedom to participate in the cultural life of one’s community. However, in a geopolitical climate of shrinking space for civil society and the recent surge in authoritarianism, the right to free expression is constantly being challenged. Artists and entrepreneurs serve as the backbone of maintaining space for creative resistance, expression, and survival. The arts play a vital role in preventing, mitigating, and rebuilding after violence.

Join us for a discussion on the role of the arts in uplifting communities affected by violence. This year’s co-recipient of the Martin H:son Holmdahl Award for the Promotion of Human Rights, Lindsey Doyle, will dialogue with Professor Peter Wallensteen, Chair of the Holmdahl Prize Committee, about her recent work in South Africa and her research on the topic.

The Holmdahl award has been created by Uppsala University to honor the memory of its previous Rector Magnificus and can be given to teachers and/or students. Nominations for 2017 should be submitted by October 13, 2017. For more information about the nomination process please visit the Uppsala University website.

This event is organised in collaboration with Folkuniversitetet.

Lindsey Doyle, originally from Los Angeles, California, is a Rotary Peace Fellow at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research. Previously, she worked at the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations in Washington, D.C. and was a Princeton in Latin America Fellow working on community and youth development in low-income migrant settlements. She is a dancer-choreographer with 17 years of artistic experience – skills that she has applied in six countries throughout Central and South America, and most recently in South Africa and Sweden.

In South Africa, she led a project with dancers on how to use their artistic craft for the promotion of social dialogue, and shared similar approaches with women’s groups affected by gender-based violence. Currently, Ms. Doyle is working with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), The Swedish Institute, and the U.S. Institute of Peace to convene professional performance and visual artists from Uganda, India, and the Lebanon-Syria border to connect with high-level policymakers, practitioners, and scholars in the security and development field.